10 May 2022
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear about a crowd demanding that Jesus reveal his true identity to them. This is more than a little ironic considering the marvels that he has already worked in their midst. They’ve witnessed the authority and wisdom of his teaching. They’ve seen Him work miracles, heal the sick, and drive out demons. Despite all of this, they are still unwilling to recognize his divinity. Why? Is there something in his message or appearance that fails to suit their expectations or agenda? What is it about the person of Jesus that’s so unacceptable to them that they’re either unwilling or unable to recognize that their creator is standing before them?
Even for us today, it can sometimes be challenging to recognize God, particularly when we find ourselves caught up in our own perceptions of what we think He should be or what we think He should do. Just like the crowd in the Gospel, it can be difficult for us to recognize Jesus when we impose our own personal agendas on Him. The Christian life we are called to, however, is ultimately one of surrender. To paraphrase a line from C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, there are essentially two paths we we can choose to pursue in this mortal life: we can either seek to align ourselves with God’s loving desires for us and assent “Thy will be done”, or we can refuse to let go of our own personal projects and demand, “my will be done.” The first leads to life, happiness, joy, peace, holiness, and intimacy with God. The second leads to bitterness, jealousy, pain, pride, disappointment, confusion, and self-destruction.
God isn’t a tyrant who makes unreasonable or arbitrary demands of us. Everything He ever asks of us is born out of his loving desire for our infinite goodness. Although sometimes challenging, let us strive to do our best to cultivate a mindset of openness to God as we go about our daily lives and invite Him into our hearts as we seek to will his most holy will in all things.